♪ melissa: good afternoon. i'm melissa francis. lori: and a very good afternoon from me as well. i'm lori rothman. is your bank in germany safe? i sure hope so. after a cyber attack on bank of america there are big questions. all your financial info out there. a great target for some of our enemies. elizabeth macdonald has the bottom line on the web. melissa: oil falling, but could trouble overseas push the price back up soon? we have one of the best names in oil. our national security analyst kay c. mcfarlane to. lori: pretty good news on the housing front. existing home sales in the best level in two years. too early to celebrate a full-fledged recovery?

as strong recovery. let's get a status update nonetheless. melissa: time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides is standing by . stocks posting modest gains. >> reporter: about 55 points in the dow jones industrial. the tech heavy nasdaq 1/4 of a percent in the s&p 500 up one-third of 1%. banks convert some retailers doing well. gold is gaining. the fear index has pulled back. that is the environment we are in. the dollar is lower which helps things along as far as equities go. let's take a look. a big mover is apple. he made us see a dramatic move at this moment. a big mover in the year 2012. forty-third all-time high today. so today, $703.50 is the high that it did today. forty-three times in the year 2012. this ceo of at&t has talked

about the sales that they have been seeing so far, pre yours. hard to gauge. an incredible demand that they have been seeing. it's been falling very, very well. lori: thank you so much. melissa: stocks are up an oil is down. on track for its biggest 3-d decline since june. fox business contributor phil flynn. wheeler this morning, stockpiles rose eight and a half million barrels. but that in perspective. is that the main reason behind the sell-off? >> about three weeks for the price of one. and a lot of that is because of the aftermath of the storm, but it seemed like somebody must have known ahead of time. either that others are paying attention to what saudi arabia is saying. obviously, most of that movement is made before the report comes out. we are hovering just off lows of the november. 1920 -- 9220. it took more than one minute today. it seems to be holding right now.

it seems like the market will take its cue from other markets to see if they will continue. a lot of times when you get a big break like this a lot of traders began terms of $10 per barrel. if you remember the old high was above 101, so traders will try to pick the lows, not hold at 92. might want to try until november, somewhere around 91. right now the saudis have really changed the mood of this market and really made a bearish day. lori: is oil at this level reason enough or not a reason to release the fpr? >> there is no reason? you look at the inventory around the globe. there is no reason unless there is a disruption of supply. we don't have one. if we release one it would be for political purposes -- purposes. and why do we need to promise that will flood an already flooded market. down big. that is one of the reasons.

lori: interesting analysis. melissa: let's dig deeper on the unfolding situation in the middle east and the oil market. joining me now, k. t. mcfarland and john pinkston, director of research. we were just watching what phil flynn was saying. what do you think of this? if this is a big move. up above 100. that big move has continued today. >> i think this market was more of a product spread market. like the price of gasoline, not at the pump, but the spot market. that all went up at a lot higher rate. it was dragging up and that kind of situation can never last. the other thing is, phil referred to isaacs. as it had more of an impact than i originally thought it was going to, and the market is kind of restocking. products are coming back from impart -- imports. you're getting back to a balance. i didn't think so two or three weeks ago, but it is significant lori: k t, what is of the

situation in the middle east. the saudis saying there will flood the market with oil. a run is on the other end of that? are they talking down the price? >> a couple of things. we use the saudis as our strategic petroleum reserve. lori: that is a great point. >> the 1980's, when i was in the reagan administration they flooded the world with oil. what did that do? a drug of the price of oil and bank robber the soviet union which is why we won the cold war. if they try to do it again, why? if you look around, it's all going up. it is not just that we are isolating is ralph. israel feels it is isolated now, and if they get to the point where they think they're the only ones that can stop, that gives them an incentive to start a war to one that they cannot finish, what could start. the other thing, northern africa in the valleys and egypt commode is next? the suez peninsula, the suez canal. that causes trouble, it may not

affect the oil price, but that is all the trade is going from europe through the suez to asia. lori: why isn't the oil market more concerned right now about half -- as k.t. said, -- >> the sanctions, there are a whole bunch of them. shipping sanctions. the eu ban on imports. they have been effective at getting supplies out of the market. opec itself has stepped up and filled that gap. the world, if you look at a simple number, the opec call. what does it need to produce to keep inventories imbalance. been producing over that for months now, even despite a significant drop in iranian supply. so the opec nations have stepped up. two and half million barrels of spare capacity. i've got to disagree with one thing that phil said. i think there will be an spr release. it will be politically driven. the rationale, with the u.s. imports dependence down so much we don't need to hold the same

amount inventory that we did previously, and that could be part of what you're saying to the part of the strategy to continue to put the pressure on. lower prices. certainly lower exports. empoverish the people. the effects ultimately don't matter. lori: as we all know, a temporary impact on the oil market. >> but this will not be released. this will be the way they used to sell surplus metals. the u.s. government used to have vast stocks of metals and other materials of the idea that we may have to fight at 2-front war. they would put out oil every single day. offered every single day until they sold off. the figures are in the tens of millions of barrels. now relative to imports. lori: let me bring it back. if what he says is true then they have lost their power. if we have enough oil from elsewhere. what does that mean?

>> the iranian economy is about half of what it was a year ago. currency have fallen. as of inflation, but it has not been enough to tap a regime change. the country you should watch is saudi arabia. one country that has not had an arab spring budget because they have the wealthy enough to make things easy. but and instability that spreads and spreads to bahrain or saudi arabia. lori: that is an interesting point. i have been to the kingdom a number of times. there are there and able to keep a lid on it. they accuse so much. such great insight. we appreciate it. melissa: well, certainly a factor. kid u.s. banks to withstand a terror-driven cyber attack. a question that top concern after bank of america suffered what is called a denial of service attack. a group claiming affiliation with islamic terror claimed responsibility. elizabeth macdonald here.

what our intelligence sources telling you? >> the word was that the attack came from the military group affiliated with hamas. retaliation for the amateur film mocking the profit, but. according to intelligence sources close to the matter, it is unclear whether a terror group had anything to do with the cyber attack. it came as the fbi has been warning that cyber corals are increasing their cyber attacks on u.s. banks of all sizes with u.s. banks started every day. this is mostly coming from cyber hackers in eastern europe. the way it works is, hackers break-in and then they steal bank employee logging credentials and then consumer money. the hackers masquerade as bank administrators signing off on wire transfers of as much as $1 million of customer accounts. to cover their tracks then the hackers launch a massive denial of service action against the banks website as a distraction to stop banks from catching

their fake wire transfers. banks to tell fox business they have beefed up fire walls. the fbi has already warned that cyber crimes post a major threat to the u.s. this is the latest from bankamerica telling fox business that our online banking related systems remain safe and secure in the vast majority of customers did not experience any issues just to make. back to you guys. lori: up next, charles payne with the stock pick. melissa: let's check metals. markets continue after this. gold is down. copper penny on. when i found out my irregular heartbeat

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lori: it's time to us read some money with charles payne. following upon a previous recommendation. a brand new one for your portfolio. >> let's go with the brand's new idea. are you guys familiar? is been around for a long time, the stock has really taken off. some people called it and obama stock, hospitals to all the antiquated records and the government would make them update this. i don't know if it what has been a hospital lately, they have a long way to go. i don't carry the president is, they have along with the goat. lori: pencils -- >> whatever the heck it was. the bottom line, this is really serious. physicians, hospitals, extended

care providers, medical devices, it makes a whole lot of sense. here is a good trivia for youth. how many deaths do you think a month in hospitals mostly because of human error? melissa: mistakes in charts, probably more than were comfortable with. >> 15,000, and that is just using medicare population alone for 2010, so you can imagine, it's a lot worse. we're talking about an issue that really is important. this stock breaks down to 74. my first target would be 84, 85. longer term, i would leave it there. i think because of where the population is going in the need for the product, hospitals ultimately have to update their systems. the stock of want to talk about is sen diskette. recently a huge. during my target, but this had a break at -- ride the wave. i would get another 1015%. lori: that is a lot of permission. so interesting with all the

focus. the dow. this is, i think, where the economy. >> demographic gold. one of these things that is so logical. the only thing is, the stocking ahead of itself from time to time, but ultimately it is a great investment. melissa: thank you, as always. lori: as we do every 15, to check the markets. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange with some major movers. >> reporter: what is a winner and one is a loser, lori and melissa. let's start off taking a look at groupon. obviously under pressure. yesterday's close, year-to-date status of 77%. today is a different picture. today you can see, it is higher by about 9%, this as they unveil the new mobile payment system that they're working with merchants and businesses for these transactions, credit card transactions. the whole system their building. the ipod and the itouch and also promising lower costs and such.

easy signup. it will be interesting how that may play out. you can see, stocks doing well. on the other hand, the lowest level since early 2010. this to make up the outskirts. so popular. everybody had to have them. it turns out, heading into the selling -- has not been selling that well this fall. we will see whether cells pick up. in the meantime, stocks have over 6 percent today. lori: thank you. melissa: corporations are finding it cheaper to lend money to themselves. a look at the huge savings some companies could be seen next it's cheap money. lori: speaking of cheap money, like the dollar. other people warned that another round of quantitative easing, ben bernanke's federal reserve would crest the value of the dollar. trading at 13058. japan also increasing assets to accommodate a move as well. 127 the. back with more after this.

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lori: at 21 minutes past the hour. here's your fox business minute. police have arrested a suspect in the bomb threat at lsu that led to an evacuation of a campus on monday. police say the 42-year-old man rouge man was not a student and appeared to have no campus connection. they also don't think he is tied to bomb threats made last week at other universities. the government says the number of cases of west nile virus rose by 19 percent of the latest week. that is slightly lower from its earlier pace, but this is still on track to be the worst outbreak since 2003. the center for disease control says more than 3100 cases have been reported so far. a total of 1304 people have died. in the space shuttle endeavor has landed in houston for a 1-day stop before heading to its final destination in a california museum. it is being described as a bittersweet love it because it never is the staying at the home of nasa's mission control. houston got of full-size show

replica instead. those are your news headlines and the fox business network. now back to melissa and lori. what would that be? we need to look into this. lori: at the so, definitely. thank you so much. disneyland paris is now in its 20th year, and had to rely on debt held by outside investors to fund business, but all that now is being bought out in a new chief lender will emerge. did this deal is covering this story for estimated joins us now. >> reporter: we now europe is in hard times. well, disney's european operations, loss of 80 million of almost 17 billion in revenue, but here comes mickey mouse to the rescue. disney the parent, the stock up 64% or so in the past year. now pulling off a slick debt deal that underscores the financial muscle of mickey mouse and shows the upside for many huge companies, refinancing debt. here are the details. disneyland paris, biggest tourist attraction in europe,

coro billion visitors says 92, and for years if the park and its parent have relied on outsiders for other debt. at disney itself becomes the sole provider of euro disney debt. let's get the savings as we yield if. 17 billion in debt from outsiders and almost 5% interest. walt disney company pie and all that outsider debt, charge a full point less in interest. euro disney saves almost $60 billion in five years and freeze of 300 million in extra liquidity if. those numbers make a big difference given the losses last year, but they also show the upside for big companies to get refinancing in this era of really low interest rates. some of the big names in recent weeks that are selling bonds at rates barely above ten year treasury. ibm, for example. it came in a bar half a billion at all the 1785%, 65 basis points. ec philip morris and ultimately a year out i think that is good

for earnings. these debt costs for big companies like disney are falling. lori: interesting. thank you so much. his story. melissa: let's keep this team alive. you heard this talk about this era of low interest rates at quantitative easing. more and more corporations are said to get all interested. so let's give more of the growing trend with brian. the chief fixed-income strategist at wells fargo. pleased to welcome back to our show. welcome to you. you just heard our collie l.i. the story of is the end up 355 refinancing that is the parent's death. this was bernanke's intention with this open-ended accommodation, third round of quantitative easing of is it not? >> i think it helps. i don't know if it is the sole intention. clearly it is allowing companies to refinance debt an all-time low levels. the demand for fixed income remain strong. lori: demand is high, and it is interesting to me that that

buyers are willing to accept this coupon. >> it is interesting to me as well. clearly there are a lot of investors that continue to search out fixed income. you continue to see the flow in the fixed-income and out of equity if you look at the fund flow which is still quite remarkable. lori: why, why, why? >> well, i think people are fearful, number one, first and foremost. people are still scared uncertain future. and so they are chasing returns. fixed-income has had a great run. as is the last couple of years it has done well, but passed last 30 years and it has been replaced at assets. people are looking toward that trend, kind of extrapolate that into the future. in addition, the fed now, you know, taking bonds out of the market, buying more. all of that demand going hunting for fewer and fewer bonds. lori: for months and months and months people, investors, were telling us they loved corporate debt because the yields, the

corporate spreads were just that historical lehigh levels, so profitable. do you see this to begin no, or, you know, what is the path? >> the spread has commit across the board over the year. those sectors have been the best performing sectors. the credit sectors corporate high-yield has been the place to be this year. going forward it, there could see spreads tighten a little bit. we are not at historically tight levels, even though we are an all-time low yield levels. continue to see does tighten a bit, but, you know, there is not quite the up side doing forward as we saw the past. still, you can earn a better return in corporate that you can't treasury's. >> it is really interesting. the side of the times. what is your forecast for corporate insert -- issuance? >> it will remain strong. the refinancing activity is kind of a slam dunk for most issuers. you know, to the balance sheet.

and you also see issuers during opportunistic financing, some be issuing bonds, even if they don't have to be you know, somewhere to put the proceeds. supporting that in the balance sheet for more opportune times and you're starting to see issuers' issue bonds to buy stock. these all-time low levels. it can be a nice pop for the equity holders, what would you start to see that type of activity, if you are a debt holder, it should cause a little bit -- lori: let me get this in your latest note coming infinity and beyond quoting bud light beer. talked about the ramifications of qe3 and specifically its impact on fixed-income investment. can you tell me a little bit about that, some of your ideas? and now we get it to a little bit with the corporate discussion, but more ideas, please call if you would. >> sure. i mean, obviously some of the stocks year, the new quantitative easing, there is no eight states. could even see the fed increase the monthly purchases if the beef. and of a play off of that.

in the short term the fed easing is going to be positive for the risk sectors and in fixed-income debt is high-yield corporates to lager term we have far greater concerns about the, you know, inflationary impact of quantitative easing and the actions of the fed's, but that is well out into the future, for five years of the road. we caution investors to buy as you go out and look for corporate bonds camino, be a little cautious in terms of the duration. we don't want to be locking in these all-time low yields for the next 20 or 30 years. such an environment that the fed is trying to introduce some inflation into the picture. lori: well said. thank you for joining us today. >> six for having me. melissa: time for stocks as we do every 50 minutes. that's it to the floor of the new york stock exchange. if banks are of the move. >> reporter: we're taking a look at key banks right here. some key dates that follow your dow components. bank of america on that they were the banking index is doing

better. goldman sacks pulling back. bankamerica up one day after the so-called cyber attack, now you can see, that is doing better. almost 1%. they did have a slowdown in their website. some of the customers, experiencing delays that there are tied texas accounts. goldman sacks of the move today. this is after their chief and its officer pinellas his retirement. your reporter this earlier this morning. retiring at the end of january if the committee will be replaced by mr. schwartz. and might be helping a little bit. up arrows. back to you. melissa: thank you so much. lori: sales of existing homes jumped to their highest level in more than two years. is the worst behind us to back or is there to will bring? to fight after the break. lori: first, take a look at some of his ways and losers of the s&p 500 here as we head to break poultry group trading up by seven. six and a half%.

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laundry list of stuff. what is a homeowner to make of all this? where are we really in the housing recovery? let's bring in anthony sanders, finance professor at george mason university and you're on the record saying the housing recovery has legs, limping, walking, running to recovery? >> i would say we're still limping. existing homes sales are back to about levels we saw in 1998. which means, we're going back to the preclinton big push or the giant leap forward in homeownership. and so we've corrected. we're starting to get there. it's slow. this may be a summer recovery only. melissa: anthony, do you think record low mortgage rates encourage people to go out and buy homes? or in a way saying they will be low indefinitely until 2015 is it having the effect of people maybe pushing off the home buying that they don't feel pressure that interest rates are going up? >> i go with the latter argument. when the fed signals they

will do q eternity and by mbs as long as they have to, what's the rush? rates aren't going up anytime soon. right now though, again, credit is still very tight and banks are still wanting to, very nervous about making mortgage loans, keeping them on their books. so they have to sell them to freddie mac or fannie or the fha insurance and that means not a lot of mortgage applications. those fell 4% i think this week. lori: what does that mean in terms of, i love your expression there --. melissa: q he tent. lori: q eternity, to infinity and beyond our last guest said. >> that's right. lori: tight credit plus low mortgage rates. people are piling into fixed income of all products, bubble you think or no? >> well i think what's going to happen is, you will get a jam up on the buyer's side. applications are down because there is no credit. this may, kind of create another wave of refi's through the 14 government

programs, which is probably one of the reasons why bernanke did this. but again, beyond that, other than refinancing america's households, i just don't see where this is going to really help. now if credit stances get loosened, as i said we just got back to where we started when clinton unleashed the national homeownership strategy on us and took away capital-gains tax on housing. we got a bubble. it blew up and took us all under. now the fed is say, oh, we can't go back to 1996, 7, 8, and 9. we have to do a bubble again. they will not be able to create a housing bubble until freddie and fannie loosen their standards, or the banks start making loans on their own books. and then we're not seeing that. melissa: yeah. do you think there is some people who think there's been a real fundamental shift in housing? that we'll never see the price inflation that we have soon in the past and housing won't be the sail type of investment, at least, you know, in our lifetimes,

maybe our kids lifetimes? we won't see that same kind of push higher? do you think there has been a real fundamental change? >> absolutely. if we go back to the late late 1990s, franklin raines, i don't know if you remember him, ceo of fannie mae, had a video, touting advantages of homeownership. housing only goes up. melissa: amazing. >> they took the video off the internet. said there was no risk to it. i saw it back then and said, what the heck? i think americans no longer buy that poppycock. lori: anthony, sorry to cut you off. i have such a bad habit of doing that. i want to talk to the median price going down for a second month but we're still on track. do you agree for an overall gain in house prices this year? prices were down last year, right? >> yes i think we'll see a year-over-year increase in prices but as frank sinatra sank in the summer wind, this is a summer event. everything is improving in

the summer. zillow's numbers came out for august and they're down month over month. year-over-year gain but we're starting to go in the slow season again which is the fall and oner months. that is nothing new. that is normal. we're returning to 1997 normal. which is good news. lori: anthony sanders, pleasure. melissa: great stuff, thank you. >> okay. melissa: we're dangerously close to going over that fiscal cliff. what if anything is con congress actually doing about it? remember they are leaving town after this week. we'll talk about the plan. lori: talking about interest rates. no wonder why i'm in a good mood. melissa: you love interest rates. you're kind of a bond dork. lori: i take that as a compliment. melissa: yeah. lori: qe2 smothering the yield curve. 1.78 on the 10-year. we go out the curve, 30-year, below a three handle. more after this.

>> i'm adam shapiro with your fox business brief. the rally on wall street continues in afternoon trading. the dow is up at this point roughly 36 points. apple and four major publishers are offering retailers to sell ebooks at a discount for two years to end the european union antitrust investigation. the e.u.'s antitrust

watchdog starting look in apple's ebook pricing deals. news corp is parent company of heart per collins and the fox business network. bill gates topped the list of one of the wealthiest people in the united states for the 12 year. he has a net worth of $66 billion. while the head of berkshire hathaway came in second with a net worth of $46 billion. that's the latest from the fox business, giving you the power to prosper.

melissa: so the fiscal cliff is quickly approaching. let's find out what congress is doing about it. rich edson joins us in d.c. with the latest. rich? >> we'll call them the cliff experts. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke, the director of the congressional budget office and the chief of staff on the joint committee on taxation. these are the authorities on capitol hill what lawmakers

actions will do to the economy and the federal budget. they're meeting with members of the senate finance committee and others. fox business was there where budget committee chairman kent conrad said congress could work out a framework to solve the cliff before it hits. >> there might be an interim step in order to give time for the committees of jurisdiction to actually come up with some of the specifics. but that the overall agreement would occur in the lame-duck session. and that would be a 10-year plan, not a six-month plan. >> one republican close to this process says this is all for show. that the real discussions begin after the election. though a senior democratic aide strongly disputes that, pointing out that senate finance committee chairman max baucus holds weekly meetings with treasury secretary tim geithner and house ways and means chairman dave camp on this. the aide said this meeting is another open forum for members of both parties to explore with the experts ways to figure out this

fiscal cliff. back to you. melissa: rich edson, thanks so much. lori: so, it is a quarter to. as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides at her post on the floor of the new york stock exchange. you're looking at toy makers. >> we're looking at hasbro and mattel, something very familiar to a lot of our viewers and jakks pacific, another name, another toy-maker well-known. needham raising a red flag. needham and company is downgrading the group overall. so you can see two of the three names actually have down arrows. jakks pacific is taking off bucking the trend. they were downgraded to a hold from a buy. talk so much here on the fox business network is softer consumer confidence and some worries about what people are buying and sometimes they're a little tighter with the wallets rand such. and whether or not people will wait until, till after the elections, after christmas? we'll see when they get in there and start buying those toys again the with that they did get a downgrade.

back to you. lori: interesting, nicole. as always, thank you. melissa: chicago teachers are back to work with a big raise on the way. should other cities be concerned about the outcome of the chicago strike? lou dobbs weighs in after the break. lori: we'll look at some winners and losers in the stock market. the dow is up 39. a lot of green arrows including green mountain coffee up more than 3%. wynn resorts also having a nice day today. back with more after this. there is cerner. charles's pick today up 3% [ mujahid ] there was a little bit of trepidation,

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lori: brief it or not earnings beginning to trickle on in as investors gear up what could be a disappointing season. with a look at companies reporting today, here is sandra smith with the trade. how does it look. >> not bad when you look at

food companies really overcoming a lot of higher commodity costs that seemed a be a big problem forecasting full-year earnings before. general mills near the highs of the session. by the way a stock that could use a boost because year-to-date it is down about a percent. it beat profit forecasts. stood by the full year outlook. seeing improving trends globally. not so much a reflection of the economy. they had an acquisition. yoplait international doing well. by the way, guys, they have been competing with those greek yo gurts. they say it is a winning fight. you can charge more for it and it is a good business model. cracker barrel, the restaurant change, this has been a stellar stock this year. topped estimates. advertising was strong. menu improvements. value based offerings. this was all a winning with strategy for cracker barrel. they're being widely applauded, lori and melissa, by analysts today for a big turnaround strategy that as you can see by the chart

appears to be working. lori: you should have seen melissa's face when you mentioned greek yogurt. melissa: i don't like greek yogurt. i don't like yogurt. i don't know. cultures. lori: cultures. speaking there is no --. melissa: no segue here. you have to jump in. lori: we'll talk more about the teachers strike. they are back to work today in chicago so the strike is over and returning teachers have a few to smile about including a 17.6% raise over the next four years. this in a school system that could end up with a billion dollar deficit by the end of the year. should other cash-strapped cities be concerned about what happened in chicago. melissa: lou dobbs predicted this by the way. lori: i know. he is here to talk about it some more. hello. >> we have witnessed with another round of political theater. this was one of the most carefully choreographed kibuki performances on the part of may rahm emanuel and karen lewis, the teachers

union president, that we've seen in some time. there are even some of the chicago newspapers are saying, golly, mayor emanuel, got it done. he didn't win a single reform in this contract. the teachers, as you say --. melissa: they got everything. >> 4% a year. plus the merit, plus, it goes on and on. the fact is they're giving, they're giving emanuel, who i think should get, if you can be charged with mayoral mead okay criminalty and incompetence and malfeasance he is a leading candidate for a charge. did nothing for the students and teachers union did nothing for the students and the papers giving emanuel credit for the longer school day. that started at beginning of school because of state law. it is unbelievable. lori: interesting point. by the way, still. >> still by the way in

chicago public schools, 40% drop it i don't rate. -- dropout rate. the kids can't do basic math and basic reading skills. it is a disaster and it is absurd they're allowing this kind of nonsense to proceed if something happened here constructed for the children because the last the last interest that was present here was that of the students who are so, so disserved by the chicago schools, and, the city government of chicago. melissa: 15% of fourth graders as we pointed out at the beginning, that is all that read at a proficient level. only 15%. you predicted they would go out on strike and painful for the parents so that then at the end of the day when they came back and gave all these concessions that the teachers would say, well, look how much everybody was suffering? we had to do something. >> the parents are saying thank god. they may destroy my kid's educational opportunities and never ever help him or her realize their potential but my god, they're there to

take care of my kids during the workday. lori: what does this say -- >> it is an exercise, one of the most transparent exercises in cynicism and i believe the country right now, certainly at the local government level. lori: did the unions as a whole get a leg up in clout because of this whole -- >> absolutely. they got a guaranty, for crying out loud, ballyhooing as opportunity for principals to have more power. as a result of this deal, the principals have diminished power in hiring because they have to create two pools. one of teachers laid off as districts are losing quite a few teachers in chicago. and secondly, new teachers. but under this contract they have to get preference to the old teachers, laid off teachers, the teachers who are often struggling and least-serving the interests of the students. lori: lou, thank you so much for your analysis. >> thank you. go chicago. lori: lou is with us each day at our 1:00 p.m. eastern

hour. highlight of my day that's for sure. i don't know about you, melissa. melissa: without question. lori: today, lou talks with noted economist and author of, wealth and poverty. george gilder. in light of dueling quotes shaking up the race for, rather, the white house. melissa: i am running out the door in three minutes to go jump on a plane because tomorrow and friday i will be coming to you live from houston, texas. america's energy capital. >> one of my favorite places. melissa: i love houston. it is one of the best cities in the country. we're doing a special series, open for business. be sure to tune in 5:00 eastern and see what makes this city tick. they have added back all the jobs they lost in the recession. only two cities have done that, houston and d.c. don't want to talk about the second one and why. i will talk to some of the biggest names in the energy business, richard kinder, from kinder morgan. that is 5:00 p.m. eastern, 4:00 p.m. houston time of course.

i will join lori during the 1:00 p.m. show with special guests. lori: good. i can pepper you with questions. melissa: you always do. lori: most of the questions we can't share with our family friendly audience. >> whoa. lori: good luck. safe travels. i look forward to see you with your boots and cowboy hat for sure. in the meantime we'll continue with our markets now coverage. was that inappropriate? melissa: a little bit. that's what everyone loves about you. yeah. lori: is china rigging the game against competitors? heck yeah, they have been for years. is president obama doing too little too late to fix it? yeah, he has been for years. ashley webster, tracy byrnes will expound upon that with a closer look at at china and what needs to be done about the trade deficit. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol

as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios

tracy: all right -- >> all right, so the market, is up 40.

tracy byrnes mom is coming to the show. is she your main guest? tracy: we need more italians in the building. >> i thought was only italian until i came into fox. tracy: jersey italian to boot. ashley: thank you, ladies. >> pressure is on. ashley: pressure is on. mother byrnes is in the house. best behavior. i'm ashley webster. tracy: i'm tracy byrnes. another glimmer of hope for housing giving stocks a boost today. we'll dig beyond the headline numbers to see if investors are sold on the housing recovery. ashley: the white house escalating tough trade talk against china. chinese expert gordon chang will be here to say it is too little too late. tracy: always is. new study says obesity is expected to triple in 20 years. we'll break down the numbers ahead. it is so frightening, ashley.

ashley: that video is not good, is it? stocks as we do every 15 minutes. down to the new york stock exchange with our very own nicole petallides. what is going on? >> makes me want to cut out the chips for lunch. i hope to see tracy's mom and you bring her on air. first start off with the dow, the nasdaq and s&p. the dow is still above 13,600, approaching not too far off the 2012 high of 13,655. you can see here you have the major averages higher today. the vix, fear index is higher. dollar is lower, which gives the opportunity for the equities to move to the upside. commodities are mixed. which brings me to talk about oil. while gold is gaining oil is pulling back. remember we were facing $100 oil practically. now we're at 91.64. oil is pulling back. energy is the one group that has 10 sectors that we follow. nine are higher. energy is lower. these are some of the names such as apache, devon energy,

occidental petroleum, schlumberger. down 1.7% for schlumberger. while consumers materials, industrials all doing well, this is because of an inventory build we saw last week. more inventory, there is more supply so you have less demand. so we're seeing that to the downside. back to you. ashley: nicole, thank you very much. tracy: well our next guest expects the markets to head higher in the near term but she says she will need to reevaluate after the elections no matter who wins. i think everyone is thinking that. janet engle, at rbc wealth management. janet, i'm glad you're here. so until the election you see this market continuing to rise. >> yes we do. tracy: why? >> for a couple of different reasons. the fed is your friend. don't fight the fed. we have all the monetary easing all around the globe, not just in the united states. second point there is momentum in the market already.

the market has a roll to it. we think that roll will continue. third, a lot of portfolio managers are playing a little bit of catch-up this year. they have underperformed. that will be another contributor. quite frankly at the base is sound fundamental as well. stocks are not unreasonably valued at this point. tracy: so the stock market, qe inifiti, global thus far off the table, market rally basically until november. what happens then? what is your reevaluation process after the election. >> couple things. not just the presidential election but more importantly the fiscal cliff. what happens in washington to resolve that. that will have a lot to do with the economy from a short-term perspective, confidence and the outlook for stocks. tracy: one of the lines in your notes i found interesting was, i will take anything that is not negative as a positive. is that where we are these days? it is less bad? >> it is less bad and if you think about what has happened from a economic perspective we've achieved the last third soft patch in three years. so we had one in 2010.

2011 it looks like what we've transpired in the economy has been a soft patch. woe can't say that the economic data is good, right? we can't say that. the fed doesn't take actions they take if the economic environment is great. so a less bad environment i would define as good. tracy: so economy not great but there are definitely ways to get your 401(k) up because you're not forecasting recession. so that beingaid, where do i put my money at least between now and the election? >> i think when we look at all of the broad markets around the world we think the s&p 500, the u.s. markets will continue to be one of the better performing markets on a global basis. if i look outside the united states and we often do, we think there are opportunities in europe. we may see a little bit of a pullback. we think there are opportunities there because that situation is settling down. it is not completely finished but it is settling down and there are probably opportunities in asia as well. tracy: in the equities, in the equity market in europe or the debt market?

>> i will argue the equity markets have some value in europe. tracy: really? are you looking at banks in particular? >> i look at a broad spectrum of the major up today sees in europe, as a broad spectrum on settling down in terms of the sovereign debt crisis. again there is no silver bullet. there are still issues to go. valuations for broadline equities across europe are quite reasonable. i wouldn't say that is my call from now to the u.s. elections but i think it's an area of relative value in a global marketplace that should be looked at. tracy: janet engles taking a little risk with us. senior private wealth director. >> my pleasure. ashley: oil, gas, tech sectors. still fairly popular. we never get that debt crisis taken care of. tracy: then there's that. ashley: if ever. could u.s. banks with stand a terror driven cyberattack? that is a question after bank of america suffered a denial of service attack and

a group claiming affiliation with islamic terror group claiming responsibility though yet to be proven. liz macdonald here with emac's bottom line. what are the intelligence sourcing telling you? >> the word is that was done in realtation for the movie mocking prophet muhammad. according to intelligence sources close to the matter it is unclear whether a terror group had anything to do with the cyberattack by it came as fbi director says cyber criminals are increasing cyber attacks on u.s. banks of all sizes big and little with u.s. banks targeted every day mostly from cyber hackers in eastern europe. the way it works, hackers break in via spam or fibing e ills ma. they steal blank employee log in credential and steal possibly up to a million dollars in wire transfers singularly each time. the hackers masquerade as bank administrators and sign

off wire transfers out of customers accounts. to cover the attacks though launch a massive denial of service effort against the bank's website to prevent the banks from catching their fake wire tran percent. banks tell fox business they have beefed up their firewalls. the fbi warned that cybercrimes pose a big threat to the u.s. this is the latest from bank of america. this is what they're telling fox business. our online banking related systems remain safe and secure and the vast majority of customers did not have any issues yesterday. that is scary about this denial of service actions, get cheap software. that is called bot net, brute computing force of the denial of services. >> that is a smoke screen to cover up the fake wire transfers. >> that's how it works. tracy: it is not very comforting though, emac. even though they say everybody is find i don't feel fine. >> you know what is scary,

when you see the website, online banking site slowing down you have to say wait a second, are they getting flooded through the bot net and computer attacks? we don't know yet. i'm not comfortable hearing what i'm hearing from intelligence sources about online banking. so i would watch out. ashley: hackers always seem to be one step ahead of authorities. >> that's right, emac, thank you so much. >> delighted. tracy: scary stuff. all right, well investors are buying in big to groupon's new payment service. we'll tell you how much the stock is up next. ashley: plus americans losing confidence in their job security and savings future. according to a new study. gerri willis will break it down for us ahead. first as we do every day let's take a look now at oil and how oil is trading. it's been on the way down. look at this move down, down nearly $3.50 a gallon at 91.80. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. ashley: all right. just bring up to speed. we were just talking with liz macdonald about bank of america and its cyberattack yesterday, whether in fact it was related to an islamic group, whatever. we were talking about cybersecurity. jpmorgan is reporting that its consumer website is inter mitt antly unavailable. that is all they're saying from a spokesperson at jpmorgan chase. consumer website is

intermittently unavailable. not sure what that is about we'll bring you that snippet of news. tracy: we'll give you more when we get more. charles payne is here. he is following up on the 3d printing wave. when will i make my own shoes? >> soon. very, very soon. let me tell you something, everyone is using. boeing says they could eventually make a 737. hit a button and print out a plane. ashley: i'm not flying it. >> that making two of us unless there's a discount. let me tell you something this is the sexiest, hottest most fun story out in technology. people don't talk about it a lot. these are two stocks i talked about the stratat this sis and 3-d. i think this is good opportunity to get into this. last night we talked about making airplanes and wallets. i want to introduce you guys to beauty. i'm going to put beauty on the screen. beauty is a bald eagle.

look at the, before. this was shot completely off. someone shot the bald eagle, found in a dump in alaska. they got the beak. got the bird. used 3 deal. printing to form the shell and create ad new beak for this bird. this bird would have died. it couldn't clean itself or feed itself. ashley: right. >> think about some of the beautiful imaginative things you can do with 3d technology and virtually unlimited. these stocks are vulnerable. they're ahead of their time. this is a hot, sexy area with many uses to make money and also for humidity as well. tracy: are you buying into it right now? >> absolutely. i like stratysis on a pullback. i think through 61 it retests the high. tracy: charles payne. >> and beauty the bald eagle. tracy: they're coming. >> you need a beak, let me

know. ashley: good to know always. >> see ya. tracy: quarter after. we've got to check on the markets every 15 minutes as we do. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. hey, nicole. >> hey tracy, everybody. we're seeing the dow up one quarter of 1%. we're closely following groupon. groupon through yesterday's close, folks was down 77% in the year 2012. if you're a shareholder you don't like that, right? how about today though? different story. it is up nearly, up nearly 11%. just moments crossed the 11% move. why is it gaining so much? because they're starting a whole new service in addition to having their daily deals. what they're looking at a new payment service and called groupon payments. so the company has been working to diversify as i noted. they have launched this nationally after a test in california. merchants can accept credit and debit cards by swiping them through a card reader attached to an iphone or ipod touch.

so these are all of these companies trying to be innovative and come up with more than just one idea in order to stay ahead. great day there for groupon. back to you. ashley: they're very cool. seen commercials for those. tracy: yeah? ashley: another quick way to spend your money. tracy: groupon needed something. ashley: they did. tracy: nicole, see you in 15 minutes. >> coming up leading china expert gordon chang says the white house's new trade action against china, it is more about politics than trade. he will explain next. tracy: first let's see how the dollar is moving right now as we head out to break. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st

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and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com, you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. it gives you the exact amount of postage you need the instant you need it. can you print only stamps? no. first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mailman picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >> at 20 mips past the hour i'm juliet huddy with your fox news minute. france stepped up security at its embassies around the world after a local magazine published caricatures of prove feet muhammad. the -- prophet muhammad. syrian rebels seized control of a border crossing with turkey after fierce clashes with government forces there. the rebels also control

several other border crossings into turkey which allowed them to bring in supplies. and back to school for hundreds of thousands of chicago public school students as teachers returned to the classroom after suspending their seven-day strike. the new contract still must be put to a vote. those are your news headlines on the fox business network. now back to ashley and tracy. there they are. ashley: very good. juliet huddy. >> you're right there for me. sometimes you never know. ashley: you never know. jack and diane says thank you. tracy: keeping you on your toes. well the white house filing suit against china with the world trade organization this week but is it too little too late? where were president obama's actions, were they just merely political? joining us with more on china's export subsidies, author of the coming collapse of china, gordon chang. gordan, let's explain to everybody what we're accusing china of doing.

we're talking about autos and auto parts and china basically subsidizing them. >> right. china had export subsidies for ought totes and auto parts. you couldn't get the subsidy unless you exported chinese made goods out of china. that is clearly a violation of world trade organization rules. and so you know the united states has china dead to rights on this. ashley: gordon, this has been going on for years as has manipulation about the china because yuan and we fret over it and nothing changes. will it take a trade war to get something done if it is effective and is that really what we we need at this time? >> you never need a trade war but the united states is perfectly suited to wage one. we always worry about it. we're the current account deficit country. last year's china's merchandise trade surplus against the u.s. was 190.5 of its overall surplus. that is an incredible number. china is so beholden to the

american market. so there never will be a trade war because the chinese can't afford to wage it. tracy: yet, it seems that gets missed in the headlines all the time. the notion that china needs us more than we need them. why is that? what is it that they're doing that somewhat frightens most companies here in the united states? >> well you know, they have an export dependent economy and, clearly it got problems in europe because european customers are defaulting on their purchase contracts and they're ordering in much lower quantities. so as incredible as that 190.5% number is, that probably will go up this year because china has been relying more on the u.s. market. so clearly we're at a stage where china is just got an economy that is so critically reliant on american trade policy. and if the one thing we need to do is to hold china to their trade promises. and this administration and the prior one didn't do that. ashley: again, gordon we

said this time and time again but nothing ever changes. what will it take to get beijing to change its policies especially when it comes to subsidizing their products? >> i don't think there is anything we can do as long as the communist party rules china. they have an economy built on these subsidies. it is inherent part essentially what they have got right now. so i don't see the chinese economy being able to with stand changes like this, like if they were ever to really comply they couldn't do it. their economy would fall apart. that is really the problem. we didn't recognize that in 1999 when we negotiated our wto agreement with china. tracy: i think what ash is saying too, is that we're so intertwined with china now, right? so many of our goods are made over there. to pit a fence up around china to say we'll not play with you is almost

impossible now. >> we'll never do that we want to hold china to its promises it made in its trade agreements the other thing, yes our economies are intertwined but we're starting to see them disconnect a little bit in the sense that manufacturing is charting to leave china. it is going to vietnam, bangladesh and some is even coming back to nebraska. so there are changes going on in the chinese economy some ways going to change this relationship in a very fundamental way. tracy: i hope you're right, gordon chang. gordon chang. >> of course i am. tracy: everybody is right eventually. ashley: anything you pick up --. tracy: thank you, gordoners says made in china. made in china. tracy: my kid go through stuff, just on the kitchen counter and everything says made in china. ashley: the bottom of this desk. coming up, americans feeling less secure about their finances and they did just a few months ago. wills will -- gerri willis will break down a surprising new study coming up next. tracy: here are some winners

and losers on the s&p 500 as we head out to break the look at nextel on top, up 7 1/2%. [ engine revving ]

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ashley: beautiful day in new york city. they found guilty of price fixing, the tech company could now be facing a record-setting $1 billion fine in u.s. federal court. rich edson with more on this breaking story. >> a judge is about to decide the fate, that could set an

entirely new president for companies conducting business in the united states. the department of justice asking for a $1 million criminal penalty. that is double the current record and former director of criminal enforcement tells fox business this is a new phase for government penalties. >> this is sending the message when a time in particular u.s. consumer and u.s. economy are hurting but these kind of crimes for this kind of conduct is not to be tolerated. >> sentencing procedures begin tomorrow. au optronics says they will continue to fight this. with the investigation ongoing, doethis is a penalty financial sector to certainly watch. back to you. ashley: thank you very much. tracy: 30 past the hour, checks on the market with nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. good to see ben willis in the house yesterday. nicole: in fact was on "countdown to the closing bell"

yesterday where in fact you noted energy stocks on a pullback would be a good buy, and guess what is happening today. >> they're on sale today. you have crude oil pressure for the last few days for a whole host of things, fat fingers, whatever you want to call it, driving down the underlining equities side, that is a trade for investors to take advantage of. trading by professional traders moving with the commodity itself not necessarily the impact he will get from earnings and the fact you don't need to have $100-barrel per oil for those companies we talked about yesterday to make money. this is an opportunity for an investor, you should be looking to add your portfolio in the energy sector when they go on. on the contrary, costing them

more. seeing the energy sector is selling off, what else are you seeing? the vix to the downside, what is the main thing you're bringing at the moment? >> the end of the week we have a major aspiration overlying the whole market. the end of a very strong quarter as far as money managers are concerned that a part of the reason is most money managers under exposed to the equities in this move we see. the monday after our expiration, what might happen from there as we close out. for traders, that is what we're looking at. we continue to make the moves to the upside on very little volume. nicole: thank you so much, back to you. tracy: thank you very much. ashley: american financial security fell to the lowest point in nine months. national security index

surveyed, here now with more. given the environment. >> given the economic data we have seen the fact unemployment has been above 8% for 43 months. here are the details, every single month 19% of them said they feel less secure today than a year ago. 38% feel less comfortable, 25% to less comfortable with the depth thedata they have had, ony their net worth is higher than a year ago. overall 29% said they are worse off than a year ago. you can see this unemployment problem playing out. so many people underwater. folks are not feeling too confident about this economy or their prospects. tracy: interest in the net worth didn't change, is that because they had money in their 401(k)? >> we have seen the stocks bounce back.

that makes people feel better. what is interesting to me, we have seen a real rally so positive story come you are not seeing a lot of change in the index. ashley: those are kind of face retirement worried about their future and the 401(k). tracy: on the other hand do you want to make a change? it'll be interesting to see what people say. tracy: unless you are offered a freebie in the mail. gerri willis on tonight at 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. eastern, what do you got? >> we will talk about high frequency trading. that is a big topic right now. we have a big show, join us.

an iconic american brand a decade past is actually being reborn, out o of all places, de. back with more on the future, what is going on? >> i am watching something take place here in the u.s. that has not taken place in the west since the '70s. watchmaking on a mass scale. some of us with a few years on us remember the name. it spawned an interesting phrase some of us will know, and for others, we will leave it out. these men are relaunching this company has not only a watch company, but as i will see in a moment other products as well. watches first, why do you think you can make watches in the u.s.?

i remember others out of business, cannot afford to make them here. >> the people here can do this, anybody can do it, you just need the right training and the time and the will to succeed and that is why they are here. >> here in detroit, this building used to be occupied by general motors. this is a place where they invented the automatic transmission, believe it or not. follow me over here. you think you have an iconic brand not only watches, but leather goods, what else? >> journals, bicycles. >> bicycles as well. not only designed, but made in the u.s. this is a story you will only see on fox business network. we love the things, companies who think they can make it in america as well as anywhere else. >> we believe we have the ability and will to make it here in detroit.

>> detroit, please noted for manufacturing before and again. i leave you with this, an old shinola newspaper advertisements. tracy: if only. i would get a lot done. thank you very much. ashley: that is the statement of the day. breaking news, closing down $3.31. that is 3.5% drop, the third drop in a row. oil this week alone, the steepest three-day decline for crude in more than three months since early june. coming up, a stunning forecast about how much obesity will cost america in the coming years, plus on the story next.

ashley: every day at this time, a look at the 10 and the 30-year treasuries. your 30-year down as well, 2.97.

>> i am lori rothman with your

fox business brief. congress plans to leave washington later this week without acting covert the fiscal cliff before the election. members of the senate finance committee are meeting to figure out what all happened when the u.s. hit the cliff january 2. they believed the more senators know, the less likely they are to work together. online real estate site made their debut tomorrow. lights develop 6 million shares for as much as $16 a pop. a full executive has pleaded guilty to criminal charges. one of 11 people charged last year as part of a government crackdown on illegal internet gambling using third-party processors in disguise payments. getting the power to prosper. this is great! [ male announcer ] at humana, we believe there's never been a better time to share your passions...

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tracy: we just wanted to update you on the chase website. jpmorgan chase responding over the official verified twitter account saying chase.com is experiencing intermittent issues. we are receiving full connectivity and apologize for any inconvenience updating you on a story we brought earlier this jpmorgan chase website having some problems. but this point we know nothing, no known attacks. ashley: sometimes there are just glitches with the computer system. now another big story, frightening new statistics on a new study by the trust for america's health, nearly half of all americans in 2030 will be obese. the medical cost will skyrocket. managing editor now joining us with more of his medical report. this is a pretty frightening number. >> it is frightening.

we are not talking about me. tracy: so we're talking about our kids. >> kids that are 12, 14, 15 years old. this other statistics we have been talking about all week because right now one third of our teenagers are overweight. one third of our teenagers are prediabetic. one third of teenagers are consuming a lot of salt. so when you look at the statistics projecting out 18 years from now, you're going to have about 13 states in places like mississippi right now or other places, 13 states that will have obesity rates over 60%. tracy: over 60% of the state is obese. >> 60% of them, everybody will be fat. another 39 states will have rates over 50% equaling

new york, new jersey including a lot of the places right now harboring between 25-30%. again, the message is not about me, i'm done, i'm cooked. that's it. it's about the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. that is why this statistic is very relevant to parents, very relevant to politicians, very relevant to schools, and the food industry. tracy: and the healt health car. >> we will go from 40 billion right now we are spending to get the treatment of diabetes and high blood pressure under control, you will go at least $64 billion by 2014, 18 years from now. so we have 18 years to fix it. it is not rocking it, fix it.

i know people who don't want to hear me say to regulate calories and the soft drinks but the numbers don't lie. you like that. tracy: six of them out of 10 will be fat. that is an ugly prom picture. [laughter] ashley: that is a lot of material. >> i ought to show you my prom picture. ashley: it is a quarter till, as did every 15 minutes, let's go down to nicole petallides on the floor of the nyse. nicole: but we have prom picture day? let's talk about toys, looking at a downgrade, actually cutting mattel, hasbro and others downgrading to a hold and talk k about weaker consumer confidence, weaker sales, softness in sales and some customers will wait until after

the election to really be more clear about what they're expecting going forward. the product lines are stalling. hasbro has been stalling and sloan. it is interesting to watch this very closely now until the end of the year. back to you. ashley: cannot wait to see the prom picture, nicole. nicole: no way. tracy: the camera was not big enough for my hair. ashley: thank you. tracy: disney in its 20th year and has long had help from outside investors, but all the debt is being bought out in a new cheap matter will emerge. dennis joining us now. >> mickey mouse is riding to the rescue. disneyland paris has had a

quarter alien visitors since it has developed. the debt, some $1.7 billion held by outsiders. income, walt disney company pulling off a slick debt deal underscorunderscoring financialf mickey mouse. it shows an upside for huge companies refinancing their debts. 5% insiders. no walt disney will buy out all the insider debt at 3.45%. it will free up almost $600 million in extra liquidity. instead of paying back outsiders, euro disney, the parent, isn't paying walt disney in the u.s. another income flow for disney.

disney is the mouse that roared lately. up 64% in the past year. low interest rates benefiting other companies as well. corporate bonds and government bonds ever riskier, so corporate borrowing costs are falling. the past few weeks ibm, filled with morris, hundreds of millions, only a few basic points higher than u.s. treasuries. ibm set a record deal, half a billion dollars in bonds, 6 65 basis points over the treasury. that is cheap and good for corporate profit, good for disney and euro disney. ashley: whoever thought putting disneyland in france with a good place in the first place? tracy: you have to love mickey mouse to matter where you are in the world. thank you, dennis kneale. one analyst will tell us why he is not sold on a lasting

recovery yet. ashley: a look at some of the winners and losers, we will be right back.

ashley: sales of existing homes rose to a three year high last month, that is encouraging, but my next guest says it is important to know who is actually buying these properties. joining me now, managing partner of mortgage banking solutions. david, thank you for joining us. so who is propping up the housing market right now? >> buyers of these homes, significant numbers are investors. if you are an investor looking for an investment, with greater place to be with real estate at an all-time low. and the fact is i it looks like consumers are choosing to rent, ashley, more than they are buying right now. a good time for buyers in the real estate sector. ashley: for the average american families they still have a long way to go. the data seems to be more encouraging. >> anytime we see home sales moving that is starting to get people waking up to reality at some point in time prices are

going to go up. in this report in median price of homes actually dropped just a little bit which means a little softness still. the activity is encouraging, and that is something we need to focus on. >> seems we have at incredibly low mortgage rates, incredibly high credit standards, that is going to continue to be the case and how much of a problem is that? >> that will continue to be a problem plaguing any kind of recovery. the fact the lowest interest rate in some time, and the fed has announced tw qe3. putting everything in the playbook at this problem in hopes of getting this problem turned around. that is stabilizing housing giving us a recovery. ashley: how much demand is out there, david? >> it is better.

the first thing we start looking at his firs first-time home buyr data. while the numbers are improving, they are far from where they need to be. we need to get that segment i can hear, but concerned about the jobs and economic features and local economies are not looking very strong, people are holding off. ashley: at what point do we get some legs around this? >> flyweight big determining factor around the solid recovery. let the market to itself. i think we'll see at least 2015 before we will see any kind of really sustained trajectory up words. a long bottom. ashley: that is not encouraging. very quickly, we heard about the

foreclosures, are we getting those through the system or do we still have to get them taken care of? >> there are a number of them to go through, but the numbers are dropping. there are a couple of places in california, usually very depressed and part of the reason, they have had homes ought far more than what they are worth. >> great information, thank you for joining us. ashley: coming up, the reaction to the housing data. "countdown to the closing bell" is next, don't go anywhere. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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